Dialectic of democracy and state building in Iran's constitutional era

Haji Naseri, Saeed; Mohammadi Masiri, Ali

doi:10.22034/ipsa.2023.491

Dialectic of democracy and state building in Iran's constitutional era

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran

² PhD Student, Political Science - Political Sociology, University of Tehran

10.22034/ipsa.2023.491

Abstract

The crisis of legitimacy in the authoritarian regime necessitated the crisis of change in the form of the reconstruction of the new order. Thus, the Constitutional Revolution was an attempt to establish a kind of legitimate order that could overcome the fundamental contradictions of the human condition, the conflict between "order" and "freedom." In this way, it guarantees the commodity of "legitimate political order" for the continuation of a peaceful social life free from public terror. Nevertheless, constitutionalism itself fell victim to this fundamental contradiction and was never able to strike an institutional balance between order and freedom. In this regard, the present study seeks to answer the question why in the era of constitutionalism, democracy and political stability are in a negative and conflicting relationship instead of adaptation? The hypothesis of the research is based on the idea that new political institutions (such as the constitution, parliament and parties) have the necessary efficiency to manage the conflict between the three perspectives of constitutionalists, the perspective of monarchists and the perspective of religious. and as a result, the conflict between the conflicting perspectives continued outside the institutional-legal frameworks and in the shadow of the lack of powerful political institutions that have the ability to resolve the conflict and manage the conflict of interests and values between the conflicting perspectives. During this period, political instability ruled the country and became the basis for the reproduction of authoritarianism.

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